adocchiare

Forms

adocchiare (first-person singular present adòcchio, first-person singular past historic adocchiài, past participle adocchiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The popular Tuscan form is aocchiare;^[2][3][4] Old Italian also has adoglare (about 1350).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *adoculāre, formed on Latin oculus (“eye”) with ad-.^[5][6][7][1] The verb is not recorded in Latin texts; the Romance languages presuppose it.^[5][8]

It survives in Old French aoeillier (1226), Old Occitan azolhar, Catalan aullar, Spanish aojar, Portuguese olhar and Sardinian aoyare, but not in Romanian.^[4][8][9] The LEI explains the kept ⟨d⟩ before the vowel as a learned development; forms without it, such as Tuscan aocchiare, show the popular one.^[4]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *ok(e)lo- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- (“to see; eye”), with a suffix; de Vaan thinks the formation is probably not Proto-Indo-European, since most branches have a root noun or an i-stem for “eye”.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Florentine poet Monte Andrea, in the second half of the 13th century, with the sense “to see, catch sight of something striking”.^[11][6] In Dante (before 1321) it means “to gaze at, look at fixedly”: adocchia / colui che mostra sé più negligente (“look at the one who shows himself more negligent”).^[5][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for seeing and for recognising someone at first sight, and figuratively for imagining and understanding what one sees.^[11] The sense of eyeing with desire is dated by DELI to Poliziano (before 1480).^[5] Cellini tells of a thief who, aocchiando quelle gioie, planned to rob him.^[12][13]

Tommaseo noted in 1865 that Tuscans said aocchiare and other dialects adocchiare; he recommended adocchiare for writing but found the Tuscan form livelier in speech.^[5][14] Today the sense “to recognise” is archaic.^[2][15]

Timeline

• Second half of the 13th century – Monte Andrea uses the verb.^[11]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for gazing fixedly.^[5]
• About 1350 – Adoglare is recorded in Nicolò de' Rossi.^[4]
• Before 1480 – Poliziano uses it for eyeing with desire.^[5]
• 1865 – Tommaseo compares Tuscan aocchiare with adocchiare.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To spot, catch sight of with a glance: adocchiò un tavolo libero in fondo alla sala.^[7][2][13]
2. To eye with interest or desire; to ogle: adocchiava i dolci in vetrina.^[7][2][15]
3. (archaic) To recognize: se ben t'adocchio (Dante).^[15][2][13]

Word family

• adocchiamento
• riadocchiare

Related words

• occhio
• occhieggiare
• Latin oculus

Usage notes

DEI and the LEI record a southern dialect verb of the same form meaning “to cast the evil eye (malocchio) on”.^[16][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 771
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 64